5 Golden Rings | The Bruery

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Notes / Commercial Description:
5 Golden Rings is the 5th verse in our ‘12 Days of Christmas’ winter seasonal ale series. The only golden ale in the bunch, we spiced up the natural pause in the classic song with cinnamon, allspice and ginger along with the delicious sweet and tangy flavor of pineapple. The resulting ale is a true holiday treat that can be enjoyed fresh or cellared until 2019, when 12 Drummers Drumming will be released.

T: Follows the nose with a grainy breadiness which builds to a peach and apricot fruit sweetness with hints of funk, barnyard, and unpleasant mold. Somewhat leathery ending with a straightforward peppery, banana finish with hints of nutmeg and moderate warming alcohol.

M: Good lacing on the glass with medium body and mouthfeel, but minimal carbonation.

0: The palate feels a bit old and worn. I was hoping for more spice notes. Essentially a Belgian touted as a Christmas ale but lacking in overall spice complexity leaving the holiday spirit out of this brew.

Nose: pineapple, honey, sweet light malt. Very creamy – they have the Belgian carbonation thing down very well. Starts creamy and luscious with some light malt flavors and then the pineapple bursts forth. Appearance: brilliant orangish amber. Medium body to medium light. More fruit than just pineapple – finishes sweet but then there is some faint hops in the background, some citrus and some hard to define spices. Like a white wine with a little bit of alcohol on he end – no way tastes like 11.5% abv – a stealth beer.

Pours a cloudy sunset type of orange color, about a 1/4 inch of head off of the pour that rather quickly faded to a thin ring. Lacing is quick to fall back into the beer, maybe a touch of alcohol legs.

Initially the aroma is pineapple juice, apple, pear, sweet sugary bread, as it warms a bit of a almost solvent alcohol aroma comes out, throughout there is a bit of spice, maybe more of a yeasty spice, fruit cake like.

Quite a bit of fruit, pineapple, mango, maybe some grape, a sweet bready almost caramels malt gives the impression of fruit cake. The spice is light, maybe from a bit of age, more a yeasty spice, a bit of phenols

Almost a bit syrupy and heavy for the style, could prolly use a bit more carbonation as well.

I expected a bit more out of this. Not really bad, just not worth a second bottle, unless you want the whole series, but I couldn't really see this aging well.

A hazy, cloudy dark orange and gold with a thin near-white head. Leaves the glass dotted with spots of stick. Appropriate and pretty enough.

Lots of authentic, juicy, even spicy pineapple character in the aroma, along with a distinctive, Belgian, tangy, perhaps sulfuric yeast character. The aroma also presents some fusel alcohol notes.

The flavor is sweet, earthy, and very pineapple forward, along with lots of fusel alcohol harshness. It's not a very drinkable beer. There's some white fruit element as well (apple, pear), along with sweet honey biscuit and some very faint black pepper. Interesting, but not particularly drinkable or enjoyable.

Pours a brilliantly gleaming gold with amazing clarity. A 3/4" top of virgin white head on it, really makes for one looker of a beer. Aroma was massively boozy. Like huge. Some spice accoutrement, nutmeg, ginger, coriander, clove.

Taste, egad man, did I just drink gasoline? This is the hottest beer I've ever drank from the Bruery, and I've had some of their 19.5% stuff. Difference here, there doesn't appear to be much in the way of malt heft into this one, it looks like it has a rather mellow and light body from the color. I really could not, no matter how much I tried, get into this beer to taste any secondary aspects of the beer, it was just fire in the mouth of an alcohol burn. If you restrain yourself, you can pick up light orange peel and sweet notes.

Of any of their beers meant to be drank years from now, this one really did leave the impression that I don't want to touch it for a long time. I'll adjust my score upon subsequent tastings, but the first one just came off as fire water and not much else.

5 Golden Rings poured lightly hazy from a bomber bottle. Amber in color, with a small but durable off-white head. Vinegar (or similar) in the very sour aroma: smells like a good marinade ... or a bad beer. Well, the taste is similar and no better. There is some pineapple and ginger in the very tart taste. Medium bitterness.

This one pours a dense, heavy yellow-orange color, thick throughout with what may also appear to be a touch of chill haze. A small off-white head manages almost a finger with pretty good retention, and light lacing by way of a couple lines and some spotting remains on the glass.
Belgian yeast is evident, adding emphasis to the spicing by way of the clove notes and bringing its dusty sort of earthiness alongside what smells like fresh pineapple juice. The effect it has, though, is to remind me of a dusty can of pineapple slices. There's a candi sugar sort of sweetness as well as a note of something like tropical fruit alongside the pineapple, possibly an effect of the mingling of other notes with the pineapple itself.
The pineapple is strong in this beer and that's good. It seems maybe that maybe the Belgian yeast strain isn't a suitable mate. The effect is a type of sourness going into the finish that reminds me of the taste on my tongue when, attempting to suck the ink toward the tip of a pen after it's hit a dry patch, it explodes in my mouth. It's not exactly that pithy sour bitterness, but it is a sour bitterness. It's not terrible, but it had potential going in that it can't meet.
This beer is thick for its medium body, but the carbonation cuts through that without being too terribly heavy itself.

O - I will say this is a tough beer to accurately gauge from reading reviews. The beer solely depends on personal preference and what level of spice you like in your winter warmer (not Belgian strong pale ale). I personally find this beer a bit spicier than I would want but looking at the rating its receiving, it is FAR better that that. Flavors and spice pop and for 11.2 ABV- it is hidden extraordinarily. It believe it could use some aging or bitter hops to balance things out.

750ml bottle, a very cool idea for a decade-plus spanning release series. Muchas gracias to DoktorZee for schlepping this back from SoCal for me.

This beer pours a hazy, solid medium golden amber hue, with three fingers of foamy, puffy off-white head, which leaves some broad, random specks of spattered lace around the glass as it evenly subsides.

It smells of dense, meaty Belgian yeast, black pepper, coriander, clove, nutmeg, and yes, yes, yes - musty, fruity, sugary pineapple! The taste is sweet, sugary pale malt, a touch of caramel, some rather encompassing, yet softly caring, and generally funk-free earthy yeast, reserved clove and allspice, um, spice, and a nicely integrated tropical pineapple fruitiness, sugary in its own special way. All very pleasant, to be sure, but that only distracts from the increasingly salient fact of - where be the booze, Balthazar?

The bubbles are agreeably tame, yet supportive in their finely fizzy way, the body a sure heavyweight, something I really don't encounter all that much, and not just for the style (and especially for the style), and smooth enough, the effect of the fruit, spice, and alcohol all having their say. It finishes definitely on the sweet side of things - malt, pineapple-dominant fruit, and seductive spice all contributing equally.

One large and in charge BSPA - it may be (sort of) pale, but honey, this ain't light. There's a thorough heaviness to all herein, a gravitas that, along with the pineapple, abounds in an 'Aloha from Hawaii' sensibility. Pretty balanced, given the big sugary inputs, and still crazily understated, with the 23 points of alcohol proof drawing little overt attention to itself.